


zinnia

by TheQueenInTheNorth



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Divergence - Episode: s03e10 Maveth, F/M, except it is also pre-s3e10
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 17:42:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29139468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheQueenInTheNorth/pseuds/TheQueenInTheNorth
Summary: Flowers are not meant to thrive in space.Luckily, Raina never much cared for what she was or was not meant to do.
Relationships: Will Daniels/Raina (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10





	zinnia

Raina knows better than to upset the powers that be but knowing better doesn’t always keep you safe. Gideon Malick is used to people groveling, grew up with the firm knowledge that everyone was beneath him.

Her smile is the one she always wears when dealing with men like him. He takes it as mockery. Deep down, it is meant to be, but he’s the first to spot that.

Maybe she should have pretended to be more impressed at this tour of the SHIELD facilities that he ought to have no access to. But Hydra’s access to all things SHIELD isn’t exactly impressive or exciting anymore.

There’s plenty of artefacts here, locked away from the world, and he opens the cases for her to run her fingers over them, and that part _is_ impressive but her awe is not enough.

Perhaps it is not her fault at all; perhaps Malick is annoyed with the reality of it all: The diviner reacted to her but nothing else does; it means his theories are wrong.

He can’t be at fault for that, can’t be at fault for anything, so it must be Raina who has done this.

Yes, Raina knows his sort far too well.

It is no surprise that he’s angry at nothing and directs it at the nearest woman.

He snaps the lock off a huge glass case holding some sort of rock.“Let’s see how special you feel now.”

He smirks at her and steps away and she contemplates following him to the other side of the room but she knows he’ll make her touch the stone anyways - and, truly, she’s curious. It calls to her. Or maybe that’s just her grandmother’s promise that was never fulfilled. She's supposed to be special, and not Hydra’s kind of special either.

She rolls her eyes and brings a hand to the stone. It’s cool and a little rough, a stone like any other.

Until it turns to liquid and the world turns to darkness.

* * *

There is sand in her eyes, in her throat, there is sand everywhere. She’s dizzy. Her mouth is dry. The water she found and finally dared to drink is far behind her. There was something in the water; she didn’t stay to find out what.

The only thing she has is her shoes dangling from her hand. The terrain made wearing them impossible. The delicate straps don’t lend themselves to fashioning anything out of them. The heels might be of some use, if something small attacks. There is no way of knowing what lurks out there. Wherever out there is.

She can’t say where she is walking. In circles, for all she knows. It’s all she can do, so she keeps walking.

In some ways, it’s almost a relief when the ground gives out under her; it means she found something besides sand as far as the eye can see.

_An underground cave system,_ she thinks, and then, _there’s something down here._

She reaches blindly to pull herself up and her fingers find wood - find a cage.

The shadow creeps nearer. Slow, a little hesitantly. He’s tall, broad, shouldn’t be scared by a slip of a woman in a flower dress. His eyes are wide and frightened, anyway, and very confused.

“Water,”she says, all she can think, and the darkness closes around her again.

It comes from inside her, this time.

* * *

For a moment, Raina doesn’t know where she is when she comes to. It’s the hand at the back of her head that tips her off that something is wrong before she even opens her eyes. No one has cradled her so carefully in - she can’t remember. Her eyelids are so very heavy. She gets them open just enough to see a dim light, a shadow looming over her.

No, not looming. She doesn’t feel threatened.

“Drink,”a gruff voice says.

Something cool presses against her lips and she opens her mouth, gulps down what she can of the water, doesn’t care that some is running down her chin and throat, except for the waste of it. She drinks until she chokes and even then the only reason she stops is because the man pulls the bowl away and back through the bars.

She tries to shoot him a glare but he’s already lowering her back down to the floor and pulling his hand away.

He sits down on the other side of the bars and stares at her.

“What?”she snaps. Tries to snap. It comes out weak. She doesn’t know how long it’s been since her last meal.

He tilts his head, narrows his eyes.“You’re real, aren’t you?”

She lets the words sit between them for a moment, turning them over in her head, examining them in her pounding skull until she decides there truly is no sense to them.

"What kind of question is that?"she says. It comes out much better, more challenging. It would be more impressive if she could sit up but she's much too wozy to even try."Did you hit your head, too?"

The man makes a strangled sound, not quite a laugh. He doesn't explain what he's talking about.

"Here,"is all he says and then he's lifting her head again, this time just enough to slide a thin pillow between the dirt and her cheek.

* * *

The next time Raina wakes, things are a lot clearer. Her mind doesn’t feel wrapped in cotton anymore; instead, she is far too aware of the dull throb in her skull and the bars around her. Wood, makeshift, but very sturdy.

She’s less afraid than she probably should be but then, she’s been dealing with madmen for a long time and this one doesn’t seem quite so mad. He could’ve killed her already, if he wanted.

Unless he wants her conscious enough to be scared before he does that.

She pushes herself up and winces, her right arm only just not buckling. She glances at her wrist and tugs her sleeve over the purple swelling. Best not to give too much away.

Her captor is still on the other side of the bars, head lolling against the cave wall, passed out where he was sitting. She wonders how long he just watched her.

Long enough for her mouth to be dry again.

The man has a flask by his side, dropped from his grasp in his sleep, fingers still brushing the metal. It looks old, worn, but she’s never wanted anything quite so much.

The bars are at awkward heights but with some maneuvering, she can get her arm through, bracing herself with her left hand against the dirt floor. Her fingers brush the flask and she pushes harder, the bars pressing into her flesh, relief short lived as her fingers close around the metal because his fingers close around her wrist.

She yelps, both in pain and surprise, and he releases her as if burned. She jerks back, cradles her wrist against her chest before she thinks better of it. He noticed, of course. At least he looks concerned and not pleased.

“You could have gone for the knife,”he says.

There’s one strapped to his calf; Raina had not noticed. Best not to mention that.

“I just want water,”she says instead.

He pushes the flask into her reach and she snatches it before he can change his mind.

“NASA’s standards have slipped,”he says, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.“Since when have they replaced spacesuits with flower dresses?”

Raina gulps down a few mouthfuls of water before she replies,“What does NASA have to do with anything?” And then, maybe because she’s light headed from hunger or just because he’s still almost smiling,“I’ll have you know, my dresses are an upgrade to just about anything.”

He smiles but it’s gone as quickly as it came.“You’re not with NASA? How did you end up here, then? NASA has the Monolith, doesn’t it?”

“If you mean that ugly rock, that’s with Hydra.” She shrugs and slips the flask into her pocket. All her dresses come with pockets, of course. Better than any spacesuit, most days. Not today, of course, but that’s beside the point.“Well, SHIELD, technically, but there’s hardly a difference.”

“SHIELD’s real?”he asks.“So if you’re with SHIELD, they’ll come get you, right?”

She considers her options. Is she supposed to make a hostage? Does he want to bargain?

“I’m not with SHIELD,”she says eventually. He has more questions, it’s plain on his face, but she has a more important one,“Do you have food?”

“Yeah.” He stays where he is, eyeing her curiously.“Is that your only question? Don’t you want information?”

“I want something to eat,”she says.“I haven’t eaten since - hell if I know. I’ll get information once I can think straight.”

He chuckles. He looks like the sound surprises him.

* * *

“So, will you answer my questions now?”he asks.

He had the good grace to wait until she was halfway through the bowl of thin soup he handed her through the bars.

She cocks an eyebrow.“I thought I was supposed to ask you questions now?”

“No.” He lifts his own bowl and drinks from it.“I just thought you’d have some. I didn’t say I’d answer them.”

“Charming.” She forgoes her spoon now too, gulping down the rest of the meagre offering. Though how he got even that is a small miracle.“What do you want to know?”

It’s her modus operandi, anyway. Find someone to latch onto and leech off.

“Your name, for starters.”

“Raina,”she says.

“Raina,”he repeats, testing it out.“I’m Will. Is anyone going to come for you?”

He sounds so devastatingly, genuinely eager, she can’t bring herself to play her usual games of deceit. She blames it on the bone deep exhaustion and probable concussion.

“The only person who knows I’m here is the person who put me here,”she admits. His face softens and it’s so close to pity it almost stings. She forces her face to remain pleasantly blank.“You’re NASA?”

His story spills out of him then, like it’s been waiting to be told. It has. For thirteen years. Will knows it’s been a long time. Raina is almost tempted to reach through the bars and for his hand when she tells him,“It’s 2014 now.”

* * *

The main cave Will had made his home on this godforsaken planet isn’t so bad. It is certainly good to be able to wash the grime off her body. The clothes he’s laid out for her are far too big but they are clean, and she can pull the rope that serves as a belt tight enough to keep the trousers up.

“You’re hurt,”he says when she joins him by the cots again, towling at her hair.

Her wrist does have a worrying colour now. It’s gone past pain and into numbness, too.

“It’s fine,”she lies.

He raises an eyebrow at her and holds out his hand expectantly. She doesn’t move.

“C’mere,”he says.“That needs a splint. You can be stubborn about it but I can guarantee I’ve gotten good at waiting these last few years.”

It’s the note of sadness to the joke that makes her relent. And she’ll need use of her hand eventually.

His touch is hesitant but he works efficiently, wrapping up her wrist in a practiced move.

“I’ve had to do my own medical care for a while,”he says at her curious look.

Just when she’s about to pull back her hand, he takes it in both of his, tracing her fingers, moving them gently.

“Can you feel your fingers properly?”he asks.

Raina nods, quite ridiculously feeling a blush creeping up her neck. She can barely remember the last time someone touched her with kindness.

Will smiles at her, his hand remaining on hers a little longer than she thinks is entirely necessary.“It’ll be alright.”

She doesn’t ask what he means, just her wrist or this hellscape she fell into.

* * *

Raina wakes with a start, her heart hammering frantically. After five nights, she’s no longer worried about the vulnerability that comes with sleeping around a stranger.

It’s not that she trusts Will, exactly, but he’s too relieved to have another person to talk to for Raina to think he would actually hurt her, if only for self serving reasons.

It isn’t her own anxieties that brought her sleep to an abrupt end, then.

Will is thrashing and whimpering, in the midst of a nightmare.

Raina turns around, determined to ignore it. He’s not very loud. Now that she knows what the sound is, it won’t keep her from falling asleep again.

She makes it two minutes before she rolls back onto her other side to glare at Will in the dim light of the cave. She owes him one for splinting her wrist, she reasons as she slips out of bed.

She touches his shoulder one, twice, then a third time with more force, and suddenly she’s flat on her back and Will is looming over her, eyes wide and terrified and not quite awake.

“You’re hurting me,”she says matter-of-factly. She should have known better than to get so close. He was the muscle on this mission, after all, he’s told her as much.

He blinks rapidly, his grip loosening slightly on her arms. Not enough to even attempt to pull free and send him back deeper into the nightmare he’s struggling to break free of.

“Will,”she says and lets that hint of fear that’s inevitable when trapped like this seep into her voice.“You’re hurting me.”

He releases her abruptly, hands moving to steady himself next to her head instead. It doesn’t really give her room to bring her own hands down. Maybe it’s better she leaves them by her head, anyway. That way, she can go for his eyes easier, if it wasn’t just the nightmare and he tries to - well, best not to think about it.

“Raina.” It comes out strangled, comes out like a question and an apology at once.“I didn’t mean to - I’m so-”

“You had a nightmare,”she says. She doesn’t say it’s fine because she’s not sure she believes that, and she’s very sure he won’t believe it, either. He’s still hovering over her and she has known the whole time that he had her essentially at his mercy but it seems so much clearer now.“It’s over.”

Will’s jaw is clenched tight, there’s sweat on his brow. Neither of them points out that they are living in a nightmare.

“You should go back to sleep,”she says.

He nods mutely but remains frozen.

Raina waits a second, two seconds, until it becomes clear he is still caught up in his own thoughts. After over a decade of solitude, she can’t really blame him. It doesn’t make it any less awkward.

She clears her throat.“Could you get off now?” The second the words are out, she regrets the phrasing. Will doesn’t seem to notice how it sounded, nor the flush to her cheeks, at least, and she quickly adds,“Let me get up.”

He moves, finally.

She slips out of the cot and lets him crash onto it, hovering next to him for a moment uncertainly. She woke him up from his nightmare. That should be it. Back to her own cot and pretend it didn’t happen in the morning.

Instead, she moves closer again and runs her fingers through his hair.

He makes a strangled sound at the back of his throat but leans into her touch and Raina sits down on the edge of his cot. She strokes his head until his breathing evens out, and then a little longer. It’s easy to pretend it is just for his sake. It’s easy to pretend she hasn’t spent years and years lonely among masses; she’s pretended so long that she mostly believes it.

In the morning, she pretends nothing happened.

Will takes her lead; it’s clear in his eyes he wants to say something. It’s equally clear he doesn’t know what.

He hands her the bigger portion at breakfast and she pretends not to notice, just nods her thanks. He smiles.

Raina pretends not to notice how much she likes that sight.

* * *

“I gave up on that at some point,”Will says.

Raina shoots him a glare over her shoulder and goes back to carving a line into the wall. The last sixty-two days she hasn’t given up but she’s already sick of it.“Well, I’d like to know when fourteen years are over before some other person gets swallowed by a rock, if you don’t mind.”

“Assuming It doesn’t get to them first,”Will says.

Raina hums in acknowledgement but doesn’t comment. She’s still not sure she believes there truly is something out there. The planet might have killed all those people whose bones he told her about just as easily. If there is something out there, it is probably Hydra’s doing. It would explain Malick’s smug smirk.

Will’s eyeing the lines she carved.“What date did you come through again?”

She tells him and doesn’t ask why it matters. They work well not questioning each other too much. Raina doesn’t like people prying. Will has lost whatever ease in casual conversation he might have had before arriving on this horrid planet. Or maybe she’s projecting. It doesn’t matter either way.

Sixty-two days are enough to feel familiar, at least a little, and to have fallen into a routine.

He’s going to the surface by himself that day. She doesn’t always come; even with the spare scraps of cloth stuffed into the boots they don’t fit her well. This time, she uses the time to go through his papers. Will has shown her plenty of them, the maps and the equations and the theories on the portal. She isn’t looking for any of those, though. What she is looking for is buried under it all.

She recounts her marks, just to be sure, sets the paperwork aside and goes to work. She should have about an hour at most. They never go outside for long.

There isn’t a lot she can do, of course, so an hour is plenty of time. She quite likes what she manages to come up with.

Will calls out a greeting as he climbs down the ladder. She hears him put down the supplies in the little storage space and hurries to light the candles. There’s only two but that will do; for the first time in fourteen years, there are any at all. Or maybe he still remembered the first year. Either way, she takes one last look at her set-up and then turns to the rag curtain that serves as their door.

Will smiles at her as he steps into the room, glances behind her and stops dead in his tracks, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape.

“Happy birthday,”Raina offers haltingly when he says nothing.

She’s not sure what reaction she expected but she expected a reaction, anyway.

Will moves closer, still just staring, but there’s a slow smile spreading over his face now.

“Thank you,”he says eventually, voice the slightest bit choked up.

His arms are raised a tad, uncertainly, almost as if he isn’t sure what he means to do. Raina isn’t sure either but she takes half a step closer and when he hugs her, she lets him.

It’s awkward at first, two puzzle pieces that don’t quite fit. Raina shifts, tries to remember what her grandmother’s hugs used to feel like. Nothing like this, that much is certain.

She drops her head against Will’s shoulder and his arms tighten a little, a proper hug now, not the tentative touch it was. It’s better that way. Nice, really.

It lasts longer than a hug should but it’s the only present she can offer that isn’t scrounged together from Will’s own supplies.

Her cheeks are burning when she untangles herself from him eventually. The body heat in the already comfortably warm cave, she tells herself.

“I made the chocolate pudding,”she says, tongue darting out to wet her lips.

If she tries very hard, she can pretend she doesn’t see the way his eyes rivet on that. If she tries even harder, she can tell herself it doesn’t send a tingle through her body.

“You said it was for a special occasion,”she adds.

“I did.” His smile is so very warm, such fondness in his eyes she almost looks around for who it might be aimed at. No one looks at her that way. Except Will does, and he reaches out to squeeze her hand.“I didn’t think I’d actually get the chance to have one. Thank you, Raina.”

She just nods and turns to the table before he can see her cheeks darkening further.

For something dehydrated and freeze dried a decade and a half ago, the chocolate pudding is remarkable. Raina only just manages to stifle the moan that wants to escape her as her lips close around the first spoonful of their little luxury.

Will either does not have it in him to hold back or he doesn’t think to do so, a guttural groan filling the soft silence between them. He smiles at her once again when he catches her looking and she quickly smiles back.

It isn’t one of her phony smiles to hide her true thoughts but she still hopes he can’t guess at the paths her mind has taken just then. She pushes away the flash of memory from the night she startled him out of his nightmare, when he pinned her to his cot, and forces herself to think of anything but getting him to do that again, in far different circumstances.

He’s a way to make survival on this horrid planet easier, she’s a way to return some sense of humanity to him after all his time of isolation. There is nothing in it for either of them if she muddles it up.

And yet, when they head to their beds that night, she considers just slipping into his, a fleeting flight of fancy. Instead, she brushes a kiss against his cheek and says,“Happy birthday” before pulling herself together and lying down in her own cot.

It takes longer than usual for his breathing to even out enough she knows he’s asleep; maybe she just imagines that because it’s easier if he’s as frazzled as her, maybe it just feels that way because she’s so far from sleep herself.

She presses her fingers to her lips, soft where his stubble was harsh, and swallows a laugh at her own silliness.

Barely two months of this hellhole and she is already losing her carefully cultivated grip on things.

* * *

All it takes is one moment of distraction, one step too far.

There is something in the water, something that isn't meant to be this close to the surface, something that is meant to be dinner, something that wraps around her leg and drags her down.

She is mid-laugh when it grabs her and the water floods into her throat before she even realises she’s no longer standing in the shallows, forming a reply to Will’s quip.

She claws at the thing, but it doesn’t give, her lungs burning and the darkness closing in, and the water is so cold, so cold it registers even in her panic, the water in her lungs, sinking deeper - getting _dragged_ deeper - she kicks at another of the arms - are they arms? - reaching for her and it doesn’t manage to grab her but the one already trapping her tightens its grasp, so much stronger than her, and then there’s a stronger hold yet wrapped around her waist and pulling her up towards the surface.

The wind is harsh and even colder than usual on her soaked clothes but there is air in her lungs now and she sputters and coughs and retches, and then there’s the ground against her back and Will’s hands against her cheeks, her vision swimming a little but his face clear above hers.

“I thought we’d agreed you wouldn’t play bait,”he says.

She laughs, breathless and ragged.“What can I say? I’m a wildcard.”

“That you are.” He drops his forehead against hers, his shuddering breath against her skin a soft contrast to the howling wind, and stays there for a moment, one hand still against her cheek.“Let’s get you home.”

Home. It’s a stranger word for what they have. She can’t say she disagrees.

She almost protests when he picks her up but the adrenaline is beginning to wear off, her body turning on itself with a vengeance. She’s shivering and lightheaded, every breath stinging in her abused lungs. Her ankle is throbbing and when she chances a glance at her leg, she can’t help but chuckle at the sight of the slimy piece of whatever lives in the water still wrapped around her leg. Will must’ve just cut through it rather than trying to get her loose. Her being accidental bait hasn’t ruined their hunt, then.

She drops her head against his shoulder and tries not to think about how helpless they are right now, her barely conscious, him with his arms full of her. Strangely, she feels safe anyway. He has that effect on her, somehow.

Maybe it’s in the way he mutters reassurances to her the whole way, maybe it’s the comforting, steadying weight of his hand on her lower back when she insists she can climb the ladder into their makeshift home herself just fine, maybe it’s the way his cheeks flush as he helps her with her soaked clothes when her frozen, shaking fingers can’t get enough buttons open to slip out of the parts of old uniform she wears with her more and more shabby dress.

He turns away the moment she shrugs the shirt off her shoulders; she is far too cold to entertain some silly ideas of modesty. Their spare clothes are still hung up to dry, washed before they left, and so she just slips under the blankets. Will pulls the blankets off his own cot and drapes them over her, too.

She probably should protest more vehemently than,“Aren’t you cold, too?”

He looks almost surprised at that, then nods and sets to work on the buttons of his shirt. She watches as he drops the shirt to the ground, lets her gaze trail over him far slower than she should, and then rolls onto her back and stares up at the ceiling instead.

She listens to his footsteps moving away, a distant rustle of fabric, then his footsteps moving closer again; she turns back onto her side, the mountain of blankets shifting with her. He has the piece of cloth they used to curtain off the area with the pool of water wrapped around himself and sits on the edge of his cot, eyeing her with concern.

“I’m fine,”she says.

“You almost drowned,”Will says.

“Almost,”Raina repeats. That’s the important part. Almost, but she didn’t. There’s no point in thinking about the things that could have happened, good or bad, she’s learned that a long time ago.

It does nothing to assuage Will’s concern, frown edged deep on his face. Absurdly, Raina wants to reach out and smooth her thumb across the crease between his eyebrows. Maybe she did swallow a little too much water.

“Are you sure you feel alright?”he asks; his voice is soft, he doesn’t bother hiding the worry, the vulnerability in it.

Maybe that’s why she answers a little too honestly.

“I’m just really cold.” The moment the words are out, she wants to take them back because it will make the answer to her next words even clearer. She says them anyway.“You should take a blanket. You’re covered in goosebumps.”

“Your lips are blue,”he counters.“And I can see you shaking even under the covers.”

She raises a challenging eyebrow.“There’s enough for four people.”

“Four people who didn’t fall into ice cold water.”

He doesn’t acknowledge that he jumped into said water to pull her out, that he got just as soaked as she did. Arguing is pointless, clearly.

Instead, Raina tucks the innermost layer of blankets tightly around herself and then throws back the rest, a prompt he can’t possibly misunderstand.

His eyes widen as if she suggested something crazy. Maybe she did. Maybe this is dangerously close to crossing lines they should stay far away from.

“NASA didn’t teach you about sharing body heat?”she quips.

That surprises a laugh out of him, the sound alone warming her more than the blankets have done so far. He gets up, slowly, as if expecting her to laugh at him, and when she just holds his gaze, he settles into bed with her.

The cot is a little slim for two people but they manage to arrange themselves - and besides, the whole point is that there should be no room between them. Raina settles against Will’s chest; she can’t help but notice the way his breath hitches as he wraps an arm around her. She’s glad he can’t see her face because her cheeks are feeling awfully hot all of a sudden.

* * *

It’s been a week since there was a reason for them to share a bed. It’s been a week of them not bringing that up, a week of falling asleep only just touching and waking up curled up together.

It’s been a week of waking up to Will already awake, just smiling at her fondly, like there's nothing he’d rather do than look at her - or maybe because she has his arm trapped under herself and he was too polite to wake her.

“You’re staring again,”Raina says. It’s meant to be teasing but it comes out sort of like a question. It didn’t sound so uncertain when she made the same joke the previous morning.

The slightest hint of colour rises in Will’s cheeks but his smile is as easy as ever.“What can I say? I have fourteen years worth of catching up on looking at beauty to do.”

“Right.” She snorts, and maybe blushes just a little herself, silly as it is.“I’m the prettiest woman on the whole planet, after all.”

“I'm fairly sure you’re the prettiest woman on any planet, actually.”

There is something she can’t quite put her finger on in the tone of his voice, something that makes her feel certain he isn’t joking.

She shifts just that little bit closer, head tilted back so she can still meet his eyes.“Is that so?”

“It is,”he says, and he shifts a little closer, too, and Raina isn’t sure who closes the last little gap between them but she is sure it doesn’t matter because she didn’t know just how much she wanted to kiss him until it’s already happening.

* * *

Will looks at Raina with such betrayal in his eyes, she almost wants to apologise.“Are you serious?”

“I am,”she says and reaches out to comfortingly pat his hand.“It’s not a planet anymore.”

“Ugh,”Will says,“That’s ten bucks down the drain. I was sure Pluto would remain a planet.”

Raina chuckles.“Well, you didn’t bet me or It about that, so your ten bucks are safe.”

“Phew, that was a close one,”Will returns with a wink.“So why isn’t it a planet anymore?”

“It’s a dwarf planet or something.” Raina shrugs.“I’d have to google it but I think they changed the definition of what planets are.”

“Well, that’s just cheating,”he mutters, and then,“Wow, Google’s still around?”

“Now you sound like my grandmother,”Raina jokes.“You’re in for such a culture shock when we make it back.”

He has stopped correcting that to ‘if’ some time ago, though Raina doesn’t think he really believes there’s a way off this planet. She doesn’t entirely believe it herself, most days.

He grins at her.“Well, at least I can finish A Song of Ice and Fire when we’re back.”

Raina knows it’s a joke but she still hesitates before bursting his little daydream bubble.“That’s still not out, actually.”

“Oh.”

“There’s a TV show now, though.”

“Oh?”

“It sort of sucks.”

“Oh,”Will says again.“Any more bad news while we’re at it?”

“NSYNC broke up,”Raina offers, unable to keep herself from grinning.

“Damn,”Will says.“You’re really not pulling any punches today, huh?”

* * *

“We could always go into the No-Fly Zone,”Raina suggests.“I mean, we don’t know for sure that’s where It is, do we? And even if It is, It’s probably protecting something.”

Will looks tired, like he always does when she broaches the subject of their escape from this planet in earnest.“Whatever is there, it’s not worth dying over.”

“It could be a way home,”Raina insists.

She usually drops the subject, knowing full-well that Will has gone over every possible idea for years and years, and that it does nothing but make him sad to think about it. The inevitability of them dying here is weighing on her heavier than usual today, though, and talking about this is all that keeps her from going stir-crazy - or worse, breaking and telling him what’s on her mind. How he deserves so much more than the hand life dealt him, and how maybe, just maybe, she might, too, because he looks at her like she’s the sunshine he’s missed so much, and if he can look at her like that, she can’t be all bad. If he might even love her, she can’t be all bad. She might even love him, too.

That’s a mess of thoughts she can’t let spill out, though, even if she didn’t think it might ruin everything. It’s weighing on her anyway. She can’t remember the last time she thought of someone more than herself and it scares her. It hurts worse because there’s nothing she can do.

She doesn’t do reaching out and confiding, doesn’t think she’d know how even if she wanted to, and she doesn’t want to burden him with her own helplessness.

“Maybe It wouldn’t hurt me,”Raina says, unconvinced by her own words.“Grandmother always said I was special. That I belonged to the stars.”

She doesn’t understand how she could say that to a child, now. A promise of a destiny she could do nothing to get any closer to because she didn’t know what it was. Something to hold on to. Something to hold her back.

“It will kill you,”Will says with utter certainty.

Raina shrugs.“I might find something before It does.”

“It’s not worth dying over,”Will repeats insistently, almost angrily. She’s barely opened her mouth to protest when he adds,“It’s certainly not worth losing you over.”

She doesn’t argue because all words die in her throat as she blinks against the sudden sting of tears. A possible way back home, less important than her? So much so that he isn’t even willing to discuss it. She can’t quite wrap her head around the notion.

“C’mere,”Will says, face softening, clearly thinking he’s upset her.

She sinks into his arms and doesn’t correct him because she doesn’t know how to say, _I didn’t think you cared that much._

Doesn’t know how she didn’t know.

* * *

Raina doesn’t bring up going into the No-Fly Zone again; a few more weeks pass without her even thinking much about It, out there somewhere, a vague threat she has yet to encounter.

It’s supposed to be a supply run, quick and easy - and then the sandstorm comes.

Raina knows it isn’t a normal sandstorm even in the split second before Will grabs her arm and pulls her closer, his eyes wide and terrified.

“Run!”he yells, voice carried away by the wind.

She wants to but her feet are rooted to the spot, eyes searching the dusty air frantically and finding a shape that is at least a very close approximation of a human.

It’s not between them and home, not coming from the No-Fly Zone, and Its steps are slow and measured.

Will isn’t running either. He’s pulling his gun and Raina knows he means to buy her time with that last bullet, that last resort. She steps around him, between him and It, and holds her hand out for the gun.

He hands it to her after only a moment of hesitation. It is Will’s trust in her that makes her bold enough to trust the little voice inside her head that sounds far too much like her grandmother.

“Around it,”Raina says.“It’s guarding something.”

She doesn’t know how she knows but she does. It’s not attacking them, It is trying to herd them away from whatever is behind It.

They circle It slowly, Will at her back, his hand clamped around her shoulder almost painfully. It just watches, barely moving, just enough to remain facing them.

They are halfway around It when Will whispers,“It’s playing for time.”

It must be. Somewhere, in the dust, there is another shape. Another crack in reality, a way home - or a trick of the dim light. Or a trick by It. Who knows if monsters can grow bored.

Raina puts her free hand atop Will’s and squeezes it, trying to put words she hasn’t said and now might never get to say into the touch, and then says,“Run.”

The bullet doesn’t slow It, or at least not by much. They haven’t made it very far when it catches up, rips Will from her side, or maybe her from his. She’s on her knees, hands scrabbling to push up, and then she’s stumbling, disorientated, and there is the portal, and it’s closing, and it would be so, so easy to just throw herself through.

She turns away from it, her mouth filled with sand before she can properly scream, and there’s a rock in her hand she has no recollection of picking up and Its head turns too far when she slams the rock into Its temple and the blow does as little as the bullet but It lets go of Will, reaches for Raina - and pauses.

There’s not enough of a face left to say for sure but It seems confused, sniffs, and then recovers, lunging for her.

Its arms miss her by barely an inch; there’s strong, familiar arms around her waist instead and Will all but throws her through the closing portal, and crashes through after her.

It grabs for them but It’s too slow and Raina’s hysterical laughter is cut short as she hits the ground and the air is knocked from her lungs.

“What on Earth -”

Raina doesn’t have time to find the source of the voice before Will’s already got them to their feet and ushered her behind him.

“Stand back,”he says.

“She said Earth,”Raina says and steps to his side instead to see who has spoken. She grimaces and smoothes out what is left of her once bright flower dress, painting a bright smile on her face.“Doctor Simmons. Don’t you think that rock should be locked up more securely?”


End file.
